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GoGoGadgetChris posted:What are you going to put in place of the oven? That's a definite "reduces your property value" type of project but if you don't use it and can convert the space to something that IS usable, then... why the hell not! If he's in the bay area or another really expensive neighborhood it might not be too bad, because most of those buyers are just going to rip everything out and put in what they want anyway otherwise it's a pretty bad idea.
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Jul 11, 2020 02:41
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True, True. The bay area is home of the "I don't need a kitchen for my Soylent" guy
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Jul 11, 2020 02:48
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Bioshuffle posted:My only fear is that I'll end up in a scenario where I have to bring in professionals to finish the job, and burning through a few thousand dollars of unexpected costs sounds like a bad idea. Don't know where you live but give your floors a touch of space off the walls so they don't bow with temperature changes.
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Jul 11, 2020 03:15
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Pirc posted:Don't know where you live but give your floors a touch of space off the walls so they don't bow with temperature changes. This, but some materials are made to not expand now and make this less important. If you want to do a pro job you can cut the bottom of the current trim off so it can slide under it and give yourself an extra 1/4 inch. This with the corner round and you are living right.
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Jul 11, 2020 12:52
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second oven is also good for proofing bread, heating plates for serving, or holding food to temp. there are dedicated appliances that do these things, but they have less utility than a second oven.
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Jul 11, 2020 18:00
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Hadlock posted:We're looking at removing our oven, we only use this fancy toaster oven that will fit a standard 13" frozen pizza. The only thing I keep in my oven is cast iron so it's just annoying when you heat it on accident. I have a friend whose mother stores bagged bread and tortillas in her oven so like twice a year his little brother ruins the house on accident because he doesn't check.
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Jul 12, 2020 05:05
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Is it normal to feel like puking after putting in an offer on a house?
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Jul 12, 2020 06:07
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Pirc posted:Is it normal to feel like puking after putting in an offer on a house? No. Usually you puke once the offer is accepted. 
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Jul 12, 2020 06:09
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There is nothing I love more than landscaping, especially when it's 90 degrees outside.
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Jul 12, 2020 21:46
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Landscaping is like cooking. It's satisfying to do it yourself but it always seems to turn out better if someone else does it
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Jul 12, 2020 21:47
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The trick is more salt.
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Jul 12, 2020 21:55
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H110Hawk posted:The trick is more salt. 
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Jul 12, 2020 21:55
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H110Hawk posted:The trick is more salt. 
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Jul 12, 2020 22:05
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Pirc posted:Is it normal to feel like puking after putting in an offer on a house? You have until you sign off that you're still in post inspection before it gets really bad. This was just the first click of the ratchet.
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Jul 12, 2020 22:49
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The puke point is when you have to review the total sum of your principle and interest for your mortgage.
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Jul 12, 2020 23:08
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The Dave posted:The puke point is when you have to review the total sum of your principle and interest for your mortgage. We refinanced from a 30 year to a 15 and the feeling of seeing the principal go down is pretty nice.
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Jul 12, 2020 23:19
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H110Hawk posted:The trick is more salt. Mt father in law advocates for this every time I complain about how many unwanted shrubs, trees, and blackberry bushes we have. Apparently he salted the earth on his own lot and nothing but grass will grow there now. Since he prefers to not allow anything that grows thicker or taller than his riding lawnmower can handle it pleases him immensely.
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Jul 12, 2020 23:39
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I thought that was a joke as far as landscaping goes. Is salting your property actually a thing, or is it referring to salts that aren't NaCl like potassium nitrate?
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Jul 13, 2020 00:32
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It's really obnoxious that now that I own a place I can on longer half-rear end painting, repairing, etc. without it just hurting myself.
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Jul 13, 2020 00:42
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gwrtheyrn posted:I thought that was a joke as far as landscaping goes. Is salting your property actually a thing, or is it referring to salts that aren't NaCl like potassium nitrate? I certainly hope it's a joke because the runoff would be horrible. There are way safer chemicals to choose. You want to burn it all down to dirt? Glyphosate. You want to kill everything that isn't grass? 2,4-D. But even then.........there are better way to do and maintain that. A lot of it has to to with proper fertilization (so the grass you want outcompetes the things you don't) rather than relying on so much herbicide. I'm positive I'm on yet another "list" with all the nitrogen I've been buying. I need to get the yard at the new house in shape and it's being taken over by clover big time (total lack of nitrogen in this lovely soil).
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Jul 13, 2020 01:26
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Motronic posted:I'm positive I'm on yet another "list" with all the nitrogen I've been buying. I need to get the yard at the new house in shape and it's being taken over by clover big time (total lack of nitrogen in this lovely soil). What's the best way to get "good" grass? I've been putting down the Scott's stuff since last summer, but now I'm finding myself trying to fight off clovers in my grass. I bought some Orwin stuff today and put it down. Hopefully that'll help.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:29
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Motronic posted:I'm positive I'm on yet another "list" with all the nitrogen I've been buying. I need to get the yard at the new house in shape and it's being taken over by clover big time (total lack of nitrogen in this lovely soil). I like the clover in my yard: stays green even when the grass burns out mid-Summer (e.g. now), doesn't grow tall and need tons of mowing in the Spring, and the honeybees like it. I could just have Stockholm syndrome, though.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:31
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Weeds are just plants you don't want. If you decide to embrace the clover, which helps feed nitrogen back into the soil, you don't have to do anything. Also you can get your soil tested and figure out what it needs. Amend the soil, add seed, water it a lot. My grass looked wonderful and was growing gangbusters until I got the water bill. Now it looks fine, is shaggy, and uses less water.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:34
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Residency Evil posted:What's the best way to get "good" grass? I've been putting down the Scott's stuff since last summer, but now I'm finding myself trying to fight off clovers in my grass. I bought some Orwin stuff today and put it down. Hopefully that'll help. Very interested in this as well. I’ve got some spots where the grass had died out that I let overgrow with clover because green>dirt, but I know I’ll want to get it sorted out eventually.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:35
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If you live in socal you just cut in a few patches of st augustine sod and over water until it spreads across your whole yard. You can literally do a loose checkerboard pattern in the fall and by summer it will be filled out. You just have to water the hell out of it and not overcut it to keep it thriving in 100f+ weather. I realize you live up where it gets cold.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:37
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In the pacific northwest, we don't have thatch under our lawns. It's just moss Moss all the way down
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Jul 13, 2020 01:52
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Residency Evil posted:What's the best way to get "good" grass? I've been putting down the Scott's stuff since last summer, but now I'm finding myself trying to fight off clovers in my grass. I bought some Orwin stuff today and put it down. Hopefully that'll help. We're close, so I can give you more specific advice than others:if you want turfgrass and not clover you need to be thinking about nitrogen in the fall. Not now. It's a building process. "But Motronic, how much nitrogen?" Yeah....don't guess. Penn State Ag Extension (for your county) will do soil tests for you on the cheap. Reach out, get the kit (or instructions, sometimes is just "send us a bag), do the tests and it will tell you exactly what your soil needs for the kind of grass you're trying to grow. No guessing, no over-applying. Turfgrass is a well known and studied thing. A science based approach works, because all the research is right there.
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Jul 13, 2020 01:53
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Motronic posted:I certainly hope it's a joke because the runoff would be horrible. There are way safer chemicals to choose. It is not a joke. He got rid of a really persistent patch of Himalayan blackberries using a couple 50 pound sacks of rock salt. But this is a man who is still mad he can't burn his garbage anymore and also wishes they never took DDT off the market. He's not too concerned about the environment unfortunately.
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Jul 13, 2020 02:40
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Also lawns became popular because the middle class wanted to pretend it had palatial estates like the giant upper class estates of England. But they're basically habitat genocide and unsuitable to almost every climate that isn't rural England and there's so many better things to do with your ground that isn't lawn. The reason it costs so much and takes so much effort to make your lawn perfect is because your'e fighting every natural force that is trying to make it not be a lawn, from the climate to the soil to all the other plants trying to tell you "hey, some foreign species of grass, constantly cut to a fraction of its natural height, with no other plants interspersed, just isn't what's supposed to grow here or for that matter anywhere". Today we painted the hall, which sucked. I was at HD getting paint and needed new tube flourescents for the kitchen which was super dim after like 10 years. So I managed to get into the kitchen fixture, which was hard as hell because the valence jut didn't want to come off the ceiling so I wound up manipulating the diffuser until it finally came out. Put int he new bulbs, promptly cracked the diffuser trying to get it back in. Left it bare, and like an hour later, the fluorescents flicker a bunch, get really bright, and then shut off. OK cool, I've done this dance. Turn off that circuit, verify it's off, pull out the tubes, open up the middle bracket thingy and... GOD loving DAMMIT PREVIOUS OWNERS I didn't think to take photos till I'd removed the entire fixture (pretty sure ballast is dead, broke the diffuser anyway, idiots had mounted the whole light in a way that it's impossible to open and replace bulbs unless you bend the poo poo out of the sheet of diffuser, and it was ugly anyway) and had already replaced the most frighting wire nut, but here's basically what was under the fixture    Drywall torn to poo poo (right over the kitchen sink) FIVE black wires held together with a wire nut, including four original 1957 wiring and one wire from the fixture Scorching, arcing, scorched insulation The round junction box is loose in the ceiling, feels like it's still held on to something up in the attic space by one screw? Not grounded The kitchen light switch controls this one fixture but it's clearly tied in to the circuit midway, the circuit includes several ceiling lights around the house, including the porch, one in the garage, the dining room, this light, and possibly more It was 100 degrees today, so I am ABSOLUTELY NOT going into the attic, but when it cools down I am going to have to go up there and see if it's still possible to salvage the original wiring or what  we need a :previousowner: smilie
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Jul 13, 2020 05:25
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Leperflesh posted:Also lawns became popular because the middle class wanted to pretend it had palatial estates like the giant upper class estates of England. But they're basically habitat genocide and unsuitable to almost every climate that isn't rural England and there's so many better things to do with your ground that isn't lawn. The reason it costs so much and takes so much effort to make your lawn perfect is because your'e fighting every natural force that is trying to make it not be a lawn, from the climate to the soil to all the other plants trying to tell you "hey, some foreign species of grass, constantly cut to a fraction of its natural height, with no other plants interspersed, just isn't what's supposed to grow here or for that matter anywhere". Our front and 1/2 of our backyard are all drought tolerant native plants thanks to the previous owners. It's amazing what that buckwheat and sage and smoke bush will put up with. Basically water it a few times a year and it will live. Water it with several gallons of drip a month and it will overgrow and flower like you wouldn't believe. We have so many bees. One day our privacy buckwheat will overgrow our house and I am OK with it.
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Jul 13, 2020 05:35
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The Dave posted:The puke point is when you have to review the total sum of your principle and interest for your mortgage. Bay area and all, but the way I avoided vomiting at the total was reminding myself that the payment was still almost $2,000 lower than rent for an equivalent unit plus, I get to call ~$1.2K of it principal every month. :nonexistentemoticonofguyburningmoney:
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Jul 13, 2020 06:17
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Fuuuuck. Woke up to water stains/dripping water right in my dining room, right below our shower. Is this a start-by-calling your home owner's insurance thing?
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Jul 13, 2020 12:15
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Residency Evil posted:We refinanced from a 30 year to a 15 and the feeling of seeing the principal go down is pretty nice. I'll have 48k on principal in 5 years instead of the paltry $1200 in 1.5 years as it's currently structured.
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Jul 13, 2020 12:17
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Residency Evil posted:Fuuuuck. Yes, them and a plumber. Take pictures of the damage now and as repairs progress. It couldn't hurt to note down times, when you discovered the leak and made the calls, when the plumber showed up, etc.
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Jul 13, 2020 12:55
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Residency Evil posted:Fuuuuck. Probably not a call your homeowners insurance thing because generally homeowners insurance doesn't cover "something in my house broke please fix it" usually it's acts of god or people tripping on your sidewalk, a sudden water leak spraying your valuable book collection. They might cover your drywall if it's bad enough but if it's just a stain you can cover with some kilz probably not Sounds like one of your pipes might be leaking (drain or supply). Do you have an access hole to get to your plumbing from the backside in a closet or something? shutt off the water supply to that shower and either poke around or call someone to poke around. tater_salad fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Jul 13, 2020 |
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Jul 13, 2020 13:03
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Poldarn posted:Yes, them and a plumber. Take pictures of the damage now and as repairs progress. It couldn't hurt to note down times, when you discovered the leak and made the calls, when the plumber showed up, etc. tater_salad posted:Probably not a call your homeowners insurance thing because generally homeowners insurance doesn't cover "something in my house broke please fix it" usually it's acts of god or Thanks guys (started keeping a timeline). It's bad enough to go from our shower to our dining room on the floor below, damaging ceiling/walls, so that's exciting. They're sending someone out today.
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Jul 13, 2020 14:08
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I found out the fun way last week that when my GC handed me the folder full of permits a few months ago, saying "you're all set", there was no mention of "these are the permits themselves, so we can start the work any time" or "these are the completed permit applications, you need to drop them off at town hall" So yeah our kitchen remodel has been set back a bit, and it's a dusty shell with the electrical done and plumber just needing an hour or so to do his stuff. Old floor's torn up, everything's been delivered for install, ceiling is bare with new lighting installed... and we can't do crap until the inspection so they can actually see what's been done D: Not sure how other states/municipalities deal with permits, but let my example serve others - ask if what you have are actual permits :-( We're kitchenless for probably 7-10 business days ("usually we get them done sooner" the lady at the buildings department said), with a statutory maximum of 20. At least there's a really great selection of restaurants around us!
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Jul 13, 2020 14:52
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MJP posted:I found out the fun way last week that when my GC handed me the folder full of permits a few months ago, saying "you're all set", there was no mention of "these are the permits themselves, so we can start the work any time" or "these are the completed permit applications, you need to drop them off at town hall" You should talk to your GC and the city about seeing if you can start in advance. Sob story and all that. Unless there are plans which need approval, which your GC really should have done in advance of demolition, there shouldn't be any reason not to let you start working. Does your city not require a permit to demolish that much stuff?
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Jul 13, 2020 16:37
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My one and a half year old roof is leaking and the original installer is just absolutely refusing to pick up the phone to honor their warranty so I have to get someone else to come out and fix it before it causes more damage. I've had a couple of contractors come out to give quotes on what is needed to fix it. they both found ponding water on my flat roof for my row house in Philadelphia that likely needs to get fixed one way or the other. One said that it would be $800 to just fix the immediate leak but that the ponding will need to get fixed as well sooner rather than later and that would be about $5,000. The other contractor that came out said that they could spray down a silicone roof coating to cover the whole flat part of the roof which would both fix the immediate leak and be resistance to the ponding issue. That would give me a 5-year warranty for about $3,000 however I would have to have them come out once a year for about $175 to perform yearly maintenance to maintain that warranty. It seems like the silicone approach would be the better one. Since my previous installer is refusing to pick up the phone and honor their warranty I effectively have no warranty at all for the roof. So paying $3,000 to get essentially a new roof for the flat part of it as well as get a warranty that would actually be honored, judging by the reviews that they have gotten that I've seen online, seems like a better deal than $5,000. Does that seem right and make sense? I've contacted my home insurance provider and I'm having them come out to provide their own estimate so hopefully they will cover at least some of the cost of the roof repair that's needed. But as of yet they haven't made it out. I would assume that the insurance company will probably try to say that the roof workmanship was subpar and that they are not responsible for the damage.
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Jul 13, 2020 17:23
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Ponding is a decking or structural issue. I don't see how silicone "fixes" that, it just perhaps doesn't matter that there is a pool of water sitting on top of it.
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Jul 13, 2020 17:26
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